For my next installment of Forgotten Future, I’ll look back to everyone’s favorite automotive punchline, Edsel. Most of us know the story of the 1960 Ford Falcon and its sibling the 1960 Not-a-Mercury Comet, but did you know that the Comet was originally intended to be an Edsel, and not a Mercury? As is often the case, Ford was well along with the design of the Edsel Comet before it got nixed, but thanks to the power of Internet we can see what it would have looked like.

As you can see, the Edsel horse collar grill was narrowed to just a sliver for the comet. Indeed, it is very similar to an alternate design considered for the full-sized 1960 Edsel line, which I’ll address in a future FF installment. I personally find the treatment quite attractive, and very similar to the then-forthcoming Pontiac Tempest. If the success of the Tempest is anything to go by, the Edsel Comet could have been a hit.

You can clearly see the large EDSEL letters along the side of this wagon prototype from July 7, 1959. Given that this would have been just months, if not weeks before the start of 1960 model production, Ford obviously waited until the last minute to kill the Edsel Comet.

From the rear, you can see the diagonal taillamps that made it over to the Comet virtually unmodified.

Here’s a clay model of the wagon back side. It looks pretty much just like the Falcon wagon, with an Edsel taillight stuck on.

Here’s an alternate front end treatment with dual headlights, as opposed to the quad headlights above. The end result looks much more “Falconish” as a result. Maybe it would have been a lower line model.

Here’s another interpretation of the horse collar grille. Not as successful as the ones above, IMO.

Lastly, one more clay model with a unique take on the split grille. This one is interesting, with lines from grille extending down into the bumper, and all the way up into the hood almost to the base of the windshield. For people looking for something different, this would have been much more appealing than the original Edsel horse collar.

So what do you think? Would these compact models have saved Edsel? Which design is your favorite?

33 Comments

The car would have sold, sales figures of both the Falcon and Comet is proof of that (adding in the Corvair, Valiant and Lark further strengthens the argument). The question here is, “would calling the Comet an Edsel hurt sales more than just introducing the car as a separate make/model?”

Obviously Ford figured the answer to be, “yes.” By mid 1959 the name Edsel had already become synonymous with “failure” and was well on its way to becoming a permanent joke. (First ‘dirty’ joke I ever heard, late 1962: “What’s the definition of a loser? A pregnant prostitute driving an Edsel with a Nixon bumper sticker.”)

The fact that the first year or two of the Comet was sold out of Lincoln-Mercury-Comet dealers shows just how Ford was tiptoeing on eggshells with the car. The last thing they needed was a second failure right on top of the first, an attitude that wasn’t relaxed until the success of the Mustang. Because of this they weren’t sure what to call it, and it became a Mercury in the public perception a while before it officially became a Mercury.

Yes, the car would have saved Edsel. And it would have succeeded. But there’s a very good chance that it wouldn’t have been AS successful as it was if it had to soldier on dragging the Edsel name with it.

That sure is late in the process to be changing it from an Edsel to a standalone model. By July, dealer meetings to introduce the new models would be in the past, and promotional materials would be on their way to dealerships.

I have to wonder if the main reason for choosing the name Comet was that it has the same amount of letters as Edsel, so that the rear panel under the trunk could be stripped of its planned Edsel block letters and those same holes filled with Comet block letters instead.

I’ve heard that the tail light lenses have an “E” part number molded in. There was also a “C” emblem used on early keys and dealership signs that is essentially the Edsel “E” with the center stroke deleted.

I like the wagon myself, and wonder what the rear of it might have looked like. And It is interesting note the wagon is the only picture taken outdoors, that late in the game it was probably a running prototype.

Just a tiny date to note: the Falcon *wagon* didn’t debut until early March 1960, about a week before the Comet did. That casts the July ’59 wagon photo in a slightly different light (vis-a-vis production debut).

I am thrilled to see that you included the very soecial, and rare, Canada-only Frontenac! This was on the market only for 1960. It sold well; almost 10,000 were built in the Oshawa, Ontario plant. It was replaced in 1961 by the Mercury Comet. I miss cars unique to Canada!

So much Pontiac, in all of the twin-headlight models. The next-to-last one looks like a scaled down version of the ’59 Pontiac nose, and that final one with the odd vertical trim reminds me of the “silver streak” of the 40’s and early 50’s Ponchos.

JP, I’d have to wonder – knowing the skill and finesse of GM’s corporate spies – if, instead, it was the case that there wasn’t a lot of Edsel prototype in that Gen1 Pontiac Tempest. I’m just glad someone brought it to the market, as it turned out to be a rather handsome design.

To me, those vertical oblong tail-lights looked really stupid on the full-size ’60 Edsels.
Angle-mounted they were fine on the Comet sedan.
And in the side-view photo, that Comet wagon looks so much more fresh & modern, compared to those Mercury dinosaurs parked in the background!

Alas, the entire ’60 Edsel had the lively appeal of a beached whale in its final throes. My dad and I, both classic-car freaks, thought the first Edsel was simply stunning. He even went to the nearest dealer at the introduction and scored a promotional plastic model for me, in aqua green and off-white. He was in no danger of buying a full-sized one; Dad’s car-buying was limited to whatever old Ford he could score for under $100 …

Whether the Comet could have saved Edsel is an open question; my impression is that Ford simply had too many divisions duplicating each others’ efforts and objectives, and that collapsing into Ford and Lincoln-Mercury was what saved the corporation.

I looked at the fist photo and instantly thought ‘ Tempest ! Bunkie Beak ! ‘ .
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Coulda, woulda, shoulda, too bad they pulled the plug before finding out .
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In the middle 1970’s I had a ’61 (?) cat’s eye taillights) Mercury Comet two door sedan, wretched, anemic 170 C.I.D. i6 engine and two speed Fordomatic ~ it couldn’t make it up the steep and narrow twisty street I lived on unless I floored it in first gear at the very bottom ~ I’m sure I pissed off every one who lived on that hill, my house was the very last one on the top .
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In reality it was an O.K. car, one owner, white over red, roomy and quiet, *very* good on gas ~ I prolly should have taken the time to peak and tweak that tiny little engine, instead I sold it for $600 and laughed .
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-Nate

I like the front of the car in the second photo, but not the front of the car in the next-to-last photo. Both, however, are more vivid than the front-end design that did make it into production, and have a definite Pontiac “look” to them.

That ultimately didn’t matter, as the 1961 Comet easily outsold the more stylish and technologically adventuresome Pontiac Tempest.

I know this is a real stretch, as in the automotive industry five years is an eternity – or at least, one body style generation (excepting Studebaker…even Nash/Hudson/Rambler scrounged up the scratch to update things every four or five years!) – but I wonder, sometimes, what Edsel’s corporate mission would have been had they not become the definition of laughable failure.

Would Edsel, instead of Ford. have been tasked with bringing the Mustang to market?

Think on it. Honestly, the 1960 models were nowhere near as hideous as the 1958s; but the damage had been done in one short week in September 1957. In an alternate universe, I can see Edsel having been Ford’s kamikazi division…willing to take all the risks at the spectre of elimination at any time. Had John DeLorean not been at Pontiac (funny, about THAT coincidence!) he could have been Edsel’s savior.

The Big Three were all pretty much in uncharted territory when it came marketing the new compacts of 1960-62. Before, most divisions had one size of car to sell within a range of prices. The minor exceptions were B/C bodied Buick and Olds, as well as two sizes of Edsel, but they were close enough not to be perceived as really different cars.

Valiant and Comet as separate marketing divisions was part of a learning curve. GM never did this to my knowledge. Corvair was a Chevy from the beginning and Chevy II had Chevy right in the name. The short-lived Lancer was also a Dodge from day one.

Either the dual or quad headlight version would have been acceptable Edsel frontal styling, though the quad lights more so for an ‘upscale’ compact. Some configuration other than slanted ovoid tailights would have been better, though by the 1960-’61 Comet sales volumes suggest buyers had no issue with them.

What is intriguing is how the franchises were handled in the transition from Edsel to Comet. The demise of Edsel was announced in November 1959 but Comet debut on March 17, 1960. Prior to this, when the 1958 Edsel was failing, the stand-alone Edsel dealers were folded into both the Lincoln-Mercury and Ford dealership networks. The latter is not generally known but many Ford dealers had an Edsel franchise foisted on them for the 1959 model year to get market coverage. Since they had had to compete with newly-independent Edsel dealerships for 1958 sales versus their albeit-similar Fords and Mercurys, the efforts they put into selling 1959 Edsels were lackluster or non-existent.

But, if an Edsel franchise which was replaced with a Comet franchise for those holding such whether a Lincoln-Mercury or Ford dealer, did a Ford dealer received a Comet franchise automatically if they’d held an Edsel franchise? True, most Ford dealers now they had the hot-selling Falcon could have cared less but some might have seen value in having the upscale compact Comet to sell alongside the basic Falcon. Does anyone know of a Ford-Comet dealership franchise in the 1960-’61 period?

I always suspected that those elliptical twilight s on the ’60 Edsel, were the same as those
used on the ’60-’61 Comets. A cost effective measure, I’m sure. But, nonetheless a cool
addition to a cool compact.